Analysis of light propagation in highly scattering media by path-length-assigned Monte Carlo simulations

Numerical analysis of optical propagation in highly scattering media is investigated when light is normally incident to the surface and re-emerges backward from the same point. This situation corresponds to practical light scattering setups, such as in optical coherence tomography. The simulation uses the path-length-assigned Monte Carlo method based on an ellipsoidal algorithm. The spatial distribution of the scattered light is determined and the dependence of its width and penetration depth on the path-length is found. The backscattered light is classified into three types, in which ballistic, snake, and diffuse photons are dominant.